25 Worst Wrestling Moments Of 2025

13. Jon Moxley Kidnaps The Rock & Roll Express

The Rock WWE WrestleMania 42 Announcement
AEW

It took a long time for The Deathriders storyline to mature into something that could be difference-making for All Elite Wrestling, and debate will continue to rage thanks to the brilliance that was Hangman Page's crowning as AEW World Champion at All In: Texas

Primarily, was all that worth all of this?

In his bid to rebuild the company in his own image, Jon Moxley set about unleashing acts of aggression upon all the people he deemed responsible for its decline. Using the organisation as a babyface institution was as flawed as many of Moxley's own miserable methods, but never did the concept feel as dead as it did when the World Champion kidnapped The Rock & Roll Express to anger Rated-FTR.

What was Jon Moxley? Was he the ass-kicking hard lad that the likes of Marina Shafir and Wheeler Yuta could follow into war? Was he the biggest stooge of them all masking his insecurity with authoritarian leadership? Or was he, based on this and other incidents like it, a curious little petty criminal with actions that fell apart underneath actual pro wrestling-based scrutiny?

The lack of reaction to Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson's plight was unsurprising but damning, as was the match this nonsense was supposed to be selling.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett